[UPDATED a number of times at bottom of article, with more extraordinary photos and videos of devastating "hype" in NY, MA, NC and VT leading their governor to declare Sunday that the state has "a full-blown flooding catastrophe on our hands." ||| To date, at least 45 are now dead in 13 states in 3rd deadliest U.S. storm in more than 30 years.]

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Setting aside that at this time following 2005's Hurricane Katrina --- the morning after --- most in the media were breathing a sigh of relief that New Orleans had "dodged a bullet", one wonders if the folks in Wilmington, Vermont today...

...are inclined to agree with insightful media critic Howard Kurtz' assessment that Irene amounted to little more than "A Hurricane of Hype":

National news organizations morphed into local eyewitness-news operations, going wall to wall for days with dire warnings about what would turn out to be a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest possible ranking.

Um, surely Howard knows that category rankings for hurricanes refer to wind speed and velocity, not the amount of moisture in the storm or the possibilities of life-threatening floods that may accompany it, along with the storm surge to follow, right? Surely he has many reliable sources that have explained that to him by now, doesn't he?

Does anyone seriously believe the hurricane would have drawn the same level of coverage if it had been bearing down on, say, Ft. Lauderdale?

Dunno, Howard. Would a storm bearing down on Ft. Lauderdale have some 65 million people in its path, as Irene had? Please, Howard, have some apples with your oranges...

Really, Howard, I am sorry that your reliably regular Sunday morning show on CNN was preempted this morning and you were unable to bring us important planned coverage, including "NYT’s Tom Friedman on lame political coverage; the media scrutinize Rick Perry, and the breaking of UMiami’s football scandal," as 14 people had already inconveniently died by showtime today from the hype hurricane.

I'm not one to go out of my way to approvingly quote New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie, but when he argued at his presser this morning that "The fact that we were successful in evacuating over a million people was a pre-emptive measure that I am confident saved lives," it's difficult to disagree with him.

Without the serious media attention given to the incoming storm --- featuring, as usual, the standard sensationalism that all corporate media, including CNN's Sunday morning shows, routinely bring to the news every single day --- it's likely that many more lives would have been lost.

If that's the cost of "hype" in a situation like this, I'll welcome it --- even as Sunday morning quarterbacks like yourself may prefer to congratulate themselves by filling a few column inches with biting 20/20 hindsight in lieu of the important, not-hyped-at-all media scrutiny of Rick Perry, or much-needed "breaking" coverage of "UMiami's football scandal."

How about you broadcast next Sunday's show about all of this week's "hype" from the Wilmington Tavern in Vermont? I'm sure they'd love to see you there!...

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UPDATE 5:38pm PT: According to the New York Times this afternoon, Gov. Peter Shumlin says his state has "a full-blown flooding catastrophe on our hands."

"We’re going to be devastated with flooding” he said, expecting "the devastation to spread across the entire state of Vermont."

The Captain of the VT State Police describes the flooding as "epic" and says they are "advising people to get up to the highest point of their residence because we just can’t get to then right now."

UPDATE 7:23pm PT: It's a shame the folks in Western Massachusetts succumbed to all the media "hype" over Hurricane Irene. They could have been out on a boat enjoying a beautiful day on the Deerfield River in Charlemont today!...

UPDATE 8/29/11, 8:31am PT: Oh, look! Here's a dramatic rescue of a very smart older couple in Mount Holly, VT who must have read Howard Kurtz, or were just otherwise smart enough on their own not to buy into all that "hype" he was talking about (this is Part III of the video, Parts 1 & 2 are here)...

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UPDATE 8/29/11, 9:15am PT: Looks like it wasn't just folks in the Catskills in NY, like those below in the Schoharie Valley, who fell victim to all that "hype"...

The wind speeds were, per NOAA's own data, well below hurricane speeds, but, but, Kurtz is full of it, because it was not the wind, but the rain that was a problem. Here in NC, we saw this same thing with Dennis then Floyd in 1999, when the wind wasn't the problem, but the massive rain dumped, totally flooding a good chunk of all of NC east of 95.

Holy crap, I just agreed with you, Brad! A conservative agreeing with a liberal. Is the world ending?

I really just wanted to thank you for helping get some real news out. I'm a former Vermonter living in the midwest. News about Vermont is something you have to dig up yourself, it's rarely on the television.

Now if we could just put Ron Paul, Eric Cantor and Boner on an Island whose bridges, phone lines and cell towers had just been knocked out. And not a one of them have brought any water,food or clothing or have a radio and make them to just sit there while in DC they figure what to cut in order to "Rescue" them

New England was hit hard.My entire corn field is laid down. Have been in hurricanes before..the winds with Irene were stronger than anything that I have ever seen. Just glad NY wasn't damaged the way it was predicted.So grateful that the effects weren't any worse.

Great article Brad! Still trying to cope with the 11+ inches of "hype" we got in the Adirondacks. Even with moderate winds(40 mph) the damage is still extensive--roads cut, houses flooded, even the Keene fire station washed away (after they got the equipment out thankfully). Some of the smaller rivers have hit record levels, even topping the records of last spring. Houses that had never flooded before are flooded. So glad it wasn't a "real" storm, but only news story "hype"....but why am I still soaking wet?

so at what point is it appropriate to speculate that Kurtz isn't really an idiot but was trying to increase his odds of winning the pool on how many folks the hurricane would send to their final reward?

How ironic that Howard Kurtz would lament coverage that included advance scientific warnings, including those from Gov. Christie and Gov. Shumlin, that prevented him from covering a TX governor who thinks he knows more than climate scientists do when it comes to global climate change.

Perry's answer to the severe drought climate scientists had predicted for his own state was for people to pray for rain. He also prayed for the EPA to stop environmental regulations --- no doubt because he believes God wants us to extract coal, tar sands, and other fossil fuels.

Perhaps, if Kurtz' Sunday show could have gone forward, Perry could have explained that the flooding in VT was simply the result of his having failed to inform God where he'd like his prayer to be answered.

Meanwhile, while one cannot point to any specific storm, such as Irene, as the product of global climate change, as revealed by James Hansen in Storms of My Grandchildren:

Because a warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor and thus the strength of the strongest storms will increase as global warming increases. The greater moister in the air also increases the amount of rainfall and the magnitude of floods....

The impact of warming on the frequency of tropical storms is more difficult to predict...However, one of the requirements for hurricanes is a sufficiently warm sea surface. Thus the region in which tropical storms can form almost certainly will expand as sea surface temperatures rise.

No doubt Howard would find coverage of the unusual northern location of this "tropical" storm inconvenient "hype" that gets in the way of Perry's message of prayer.

Perhaps what makes me angriest is the smug, self-satisfied "I got mine" grin on Howie the Hack's face. 14 people die and thinks it's all "hype," but bitching about what stupid thing Michele Bachman said is "news."

Not exactly where it is you are getting your info from, but to clarify, it is not the 5th deadliest storm in the last thirty years. It is the 14th deadliest hurricane in the last 30 years. The ranking is as follows: Katrina: 1,836; Rita: 119; Hugo: 86; Juan: 63; Floyd: 57; Ivan: 57; Isabel: 50; Frances: 48; Charley: 34; Ike: 47; Allison: 41; Fran; 37; Wilma: 35; Irene: 32.

This blog proves that it is hype. Get your facts straight before you decide to opine.

Oh, and the flooding is a result of TROPICAL STORM Irene, not Hurricane Irene.

I guess it wasn't deadly at all, Stephanie, unless you're one of the 32.

It started out as Hurricane Irene, but as with many hurricanes, it was downgraded to a "tropical storm" as wind speeds decreased as the storm hit land. But, I guess the flooding isn't "news" once you downgrade to a "tropical storm," right Stephanie?

Not exactly where it is you are getting your info from, but to clarify, it is not the 5th deadliest storm in the last thirty years. It is the 14th deadliest hurricane in the last 30 years. The ranking is as follows: Katrina: 1,836; Rita: 119; Hugo: 86; Juan: 63; Floyd: 57; Ivan: 57; Isabel: 50; Frances: 48; Charley: 34; Ike: 47; Allison: 41; Fran; 37; Wilma: 35; Irene: 32.

My numbers come from Nate Silver at the New York Times who similarly argues --- with statistics to back it up --- that Kurtz was wrong in his charge that the storm was over-hyped. At least in comparison with the reportage for all major storms in the U.S. since 1980, as he documents.

His article was written when the death toll from Irene was still at 21, so it was, at the time, tied for 10th in fatalities for U.S. storms since 1980.

Here's the New York Times chart from the article:

As the death toll from Irene has risen to 32 since Nate's story published, that makes it the 5th deadliest storm since 1980.

So, what explains your numbers versus the NYT? Dunno. But I'm guessing your fatality numbers likely included non-U.S. deaths as well. That's why I had noted, accurately, that Irene was the 5th deadliest U.S. storm. Otherwise, if the NYT got their numbers wrong (they have been known to make errors), you'll need to take up your charge of "hype" with them.

This blog proves that it is hype. Get your facts straight before you decide to opine.

Backatcha, dear.

Oh, and the flooding is a result of TROPICAL STORM Irene, not Hurricane Irene.

Thanks for the clarification. That changes everything. Then Howie was right! The "Hurricane" was just hype, but not the Tropical Storm, I guess!

Brad @ 17: I saw the photo from Keene in the article which is what actually got me to leave the comment (Thank you for including it!). Thank you for your concern. They do grow 'em hardy up here, so we'll all dig out, repair, rebuilt, and go on with life. One of the nice things about such a rural area is that the whole community pulls together whenever a disaster hits; those who haven't been affected just go and help those that have been, without being asked. Always renews my optimism about people and keeps me from sliding into too much pessimism from reading the political news....

Our invading forces will probably free those folks from that terrible oppression like House Majority Leader Cantor is going to free the devastated folk who lived through hurricane Irene from the burden of recovery (no disaster money without equal budget cuts somewhere else).

Thanks for putting up the stats on Libya. We should be so lucky to have that kind of dictator. Helps me to understand why Cynthia McKinney and Hugo Chavez have stood by Ghadafi. McKinney talked about NATO bombs being dropped on innocent civilians. It's enough to make me drive less and have a vehicle that gets great gas mileage.

While I previously linked to Bill McKibben's appearance on Democracy Now!, some of his remarks deserve extended quotation here.

We’re in unprecedented, off-the-charts territory. It’s not that there haven’t been disasters before. There have always been disasters. Nature is relatively random in that sense. But now we’re seeing two things. One, disasters that go beyond the bounds of what we’ve ever seen before. Because there’s more water in the atmosphere, it’s possible to have bigger floods, record snowfalls when it’s cold, record rainstorms. …we’ve had not only this extraordinary flooding, but on the same day that Hurricane Irene was coming down, Houston set its all-time temperature record, 109 degrees. We’re in the middle of the worst drought ever recorded in Texas. And, you know, Governor Perry’s prayers for rain have so far been unanswered, maybe because he’s done so little to ameliorate the flow of carbon into the atmosphere. We’re in a new situation…

As this hurricane rode up the coast, one of the reasons it was able to pick up so much water, that it’s now dumping on Vermont and Quebec, is that sea surface temperatures were at an all-time record high off New York and New Jersey…When you amp up a system—and so far we’ve added about three-quarters of a watt per square meter of the earth’s surface extra solar energy to the planet by burning coal and gas and oil—when you do that, you can expect more dynamic, more amped-up, more violent weather. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing.

McKibbin went on to note that if the XL pipeline goes through, it may push us into deep trouble. It will release the second largest pool of carbon on the planet. “That oil,” he said, “has to stay in the ground. It’s as important that it stay in the ground as it is that Brazil guard its rainforest.”

I noticed that Brad gives the source for his data. What's the source of yours Stephanie? Besides, your "corrections" do not change the validity of the points made in the post not one bit. Your post proves that you're just another clueless conservative who's posts are only hype.

COMMENT #36 [Permalink]...
David James
said on 8/30/2011 @ 6:19 pm PT...

Excellent.....Kurtz looked even dumber than usual. "Just a Category One" Some of the most catastrophic flooding has come from Just Tropical Storms. Just ask anyone who remembers what Agnes did when it meandered up the Chesapeake Bay and Susquehanna River in the 70s